As we close out 2016 let’s take a look back and review the most prevalent scams that were perpetrated on the public this last year. First there are 3 levels of financial victimization, those levels are:

Frauds

Scams

Sales Manipulations

The sad facts are that these 3 combine for approximately $250B in annual losses. Its well too early to find the numbers for 2016, in fact by mid 2017 we will most likely see the numbers from 2015. This validates just how low the consideration really is when it comes to financial victimization, it truly is an afterthought.

In 2016 we had a massive increase in the #1 scam for the year which was tax scams. The telephone lines burned with boiler room calls impersonating IRS agents scaring people into sending large fees to stop potential legal action from the dreaded I.R.S

Police raids in Mumbai, India in October shut down some suspected IRS scam calling sites after scammers victimized at least 6,400 U.S. people nationwide by stealing more an estimated $36.5 million.

Fake debt collection claims and phony announcements of sweepstakes wins, prizes or gifts maintained their hold on the next two spots in the scam ranking for the second consecutive year. The debt collection claims are focused on the most unsuspecting demographics which are historically the 55+ age groups. As to sweepstakes and lottery winners the Jamaica lottery scams are by far the most prevalent and also the most difficult to shut down.

Fairly new to the party in 2016 was online websites offering sales of gifts or other goods which were either completely phony or counterfeit.

Employment scams came 5th. These scams are incredible insidious as they double as identity theft rings as well. When people are confronted by the employment offers they often times not only pay needless fees but also provide personal information such as date of birth, address, phone numbers and worse yet social security number.

The list rounds out with:

Government grants

Tech support

Advance Fee Loans

Fake Check / Money Order

Phishing.

Once again 2016 showed the public to be exposed to an exceptional risk for financial victimization and that process was mostly due to financial illiteracy and lack of awareness. These two major exposures continue to be the greatest weaknesses faced by a very unsuspecting public. Most commonly we continue to hear “It can’t or won’t happen to me” and every day I receive calls describing a sad story about a totally unnecessary financial victimization. What I find so frustrating is 100% of all the stories I have heard were totally avoidable. To date we have saved members almost $7M and we will continue to grow this protection. It is impossible to help a person who is either unaware of a problem or simply unwilling to seek help. It is a very sad commentary when practically 100% of financial victimizations can stopped in their tracks and money can be kept in the pocketbooks of the potential victims.

The incredible lack of awareness when it comes to financial victimization is of major concern. There is an exhaustive litany of regulations and agencies that are supposedly in place to protect the public and have done next to nothing to stop the epidemic of financial victimization.

Presently over 10,000 Americans turn 65 each and every day and will continue on this path until approx. 2020. This represents a literal bonanza for scammers and fraudsters. As bad as that might be, the real tragedy is this growing pool of elderly are currently facing a greater risk from their own family members and friends. Studies have shown that the highest percentage of elder abuse is perpetrated by family members of the senior citizen. It is too cliché’ to say “If you can’t trust family members, who can you trust.” Add the con artists, scammers and downright fraudsters and you have a nearly impossible environment for people to protect themselves from.

Here is the great equalizer: in reality the only perpetrator in any financial victimization is the victim themselves. Now I am quite aware that pointing fingers at victims is never a good thing, yet in this case it is very important that this phenomena is identified. The financial victim has a choice in their process. Unlike robbery or burglary no one put a gun to the head of the victim or illegally entered their homes, no the victim participated in the entire chain of events. The initial causation is the opportunity the victim invited. We discussed the 3 psychological triggers and how they are launched and later used against the victim, and this process is quite evident throughout the experience. The saddest fact is that the victim had the 100% total control in stopping the process dead in its tracks. Without the primary causation there can be no victimization.

Today we look at the behaviors that become the causative action in all victimizations. Firstly let’s make it abundantly clear that there is no specific type who is more prone to victimization, of course there are some human behavior traits that are common in victims. Anyone at anytime can become a financial victim. You presently just finished saying in your head how it could never happen to you, please erase that thought and come to the hard realization that you definitely are risk of financial victimization just as everyone of us is. If you tend to trust people and have an easy susceptibility to believing people you could be a financial victim. If you believe money is of vital importance you could be a financial victim. If you have a scarcity driven attitude you could be a financial victim. If you believe in the get rich quick mentality, you could be a financial victim. there are many other thoughts, attitudes and behaviors that could easily make you a financial victim.

Stop the process in the very beginning. Start keeping a financial journal, record your financial decision making process and continue to study the common traits exposed in your process. After identifying these traits write down a strategic plan to change these traits and behaviors. Just remember its impossible to change that which you are basically unaware of.

Here is where I wanted to share with you the 3 basic psychological triggers that are used in creating financial victims. This is well-worth 3 days in our cycle.

The process is pushed along by ineffective due diligence (full discussion on due diligence will be covered in the coming days, be sure to look for it). This allows the predator in, and once in the golden triggers are launched. Just like Dracula, you need to invite the predator in and sadly most victims are all to willing to open the doors.

The 3 psychological triggers begin with desire, of course we all desire on some level to be successful by increasing our wealth and earning capacities. It is human nature to want more and also common to want more for less. Who doesn’t like a great deal? The better and easier the gain the more attractive it becomes. Like a shiny bauble its hard to take your attention off of it once the process has been initiated. So once you desire the offer (whatever it is ) the process has begun. The scammer or fraudster has your attention and has initiated and emotion attached to the offer. You have crossed the first vital emotional starting point, you have emotionally bought in without being consciously aware of it.

The second trigger is fear of loss. An emotional buy-in now gives you psychic ownership. This is when you have taken ownership in your mind’s eye, it is now yours and you begin to emotionally enjoy the benefits of ownership. It is almost impossible not to associate a fear of loss once this is taken away from you. And now you have crossed the 2nd plateau as unconscious ownership creates the trigger of “fear of loss.”

Now, you must be aware that fear of loss can be both healthy and unfortunately, very unhealthy. The normal (healthy) fear of loss would be the loss of your investment capital (money you putting up for offer). As an example say you are discussing an investment of $100,000, of course you begin from a threshold of risk for that entire amount. Therefore a healthy fear of loss would be focused on the $100,000. Remember though, the emotional attachment has been triggered by the benefits of ownership. You have unconsciously already began to mitigate the risks involved and already envisioning the end results being described by the scammer or fraudster. The fear of loss is subtlety being transferred into an unhealthy fear of loss which sets off the 3rd trigger.

The third and final trigger is the victimization trigger. Greed is the last stage and at this point you have passed the point of no return. The victimization is now complete and only the amount of your loss is undetermined. Please understand we are all the subject to greed; there is no individual who is immune to allure of greed. When greed sets in your unconscious ownership has manifested itself into a conscious state and you are now only focused on the end result. If the offer promoted a $300,ooo return for the $100,000 investment, you are now entirely focused on the $300,000 and the fear of loss has shifted to the unhealthy thought that you stand to lose $300,000.

This entire process can happen very quickly, for well-trained and skilled conmen it can be a matter of minutes to pull all three triggers. While you still may take weeks or even months to write the check, you are doomed in the early process. The KEY is to RECOGNIZE the PROCESS!

This is where we provide the tools, material, training and concepts that will help you be consistently aware and able to recognize the efforts to launch the triggers.

We covered the dangers of the telephone and quite frankly it is well more extensive than we were able to cover in 500 or more words. Today let’s discuss the absolute cesspool of scam and fraud risk or as the scammers and fraudsters would consider the absolute fountain of grand wealth. I am speaking of your email. This is where the scam and fraud can now establish a connection far superior to the past. Imagine the speed of the con when instead of having to make a personal connection via snail mail or in person to an immediate momentary connection via the internet. The speed and depth of contact is now grown exponentially. Not only is the speed of messaging but the cost is basically zero. Now postage, no travel expenses, no time costs. Just pure exposure with little to no cost.

This is truly a symptom of our times. Your email is filled with white noise and massive amounts of fluff. Much of it can be created to pass as astutely authoritative content and often you are attracted to the perception of authority. Yet in reality the vast majority of the content is misinformation, and sometimes direct inappropriate misdirection. So you are exposed to an extraordinary amount of risk in your email account(s).

The evidence of this was just this week 1 Billion Yahoo accounts were hacked. Now, Yahoo has a long history of being a very susceptible email service provider and even with that history an incredible amount of people continue to maintain yahoo accounts. Those people are now subject to their information being open to the public on a mass exposure. But that is hardly the real threat you face. The most damaging issue in your emails is the vast expansion of scams and fraud that include phishing, identity theft, misinformation, mass investment pumps and dump campaigns and much, much more illicit offerings. One of the most threatening financial exposures in your life is your email account. sad, but true.

How do you limit this exposure? well, firstly you must pay attention. I personally receive over 250 emails per day and some days that can be 500. Now, I will admit much of it is fluff because I do so much research and intentionally put myself at risk in order to see what the offerings look like and how the scammers and fraudsters are approaching the public. But you also have this incredible exposure due to your own personal curiosity. and by the way curiosity is good, nothing to fear, but the result of curiosity is exposure. Thus selectivity and awareness becomes quite important. One mishap, such as clicking on an unknown link can open your entire life up to incredible damage. Even the upper government so called brains are exposed, the past election showed that to be true. You are exposed and cannot diminish that exposure but you can limit it by being proactive and fully aware. The protection here is to limit your exposure by being fully aware and cognizant of the misinformation that can cause grave personal financial damage.

How many calls a day do you receive? With the advent of the no call list you probably don’t receive many calls at all, but if you are strictly on a cell phone I bet you get bombarded. Or if you own a business there is still a tsunami of cold callers. The telephone is one of the greatest tools fraudsters, scammers and predatory sales people possess. Your greatest risk isn’t the automated calls, its the live calls.

In a world of instant gratification our accepted blessings of technology are also the curse that provides grave financial risk. Today let’s discuss just one telephone fraud that nets billions of dollars annually. Its called the Jamaican lottery scam. This is one of the earliest types of scams so its been around a very long time and yet it still is being run on unsuspecting people every day. Your exposure begins with the email or direct mail. When you provide contact information you are often providing future scammers your contact info.

The marketing world is filled with list development, all sales organizations compile lists to work with. The list I’m discussing is often called “suckers lists” these are people who have self-identified as easy marks. They have done this through no recognized effort. You see the lists are compiled by scammers who sell these lists to other scammers. The way the lists are compiled are through very innocent marketing pitches. You see the more readily you are willing to provide your personal information the more likely you are to be manipulated by a con game. Thus the lists are compiled and then used for boiler room operations (telemarketing).

The boiler rooms in the Jamaican lottery scam are off-shore, mostly in Jamaica. They buy lists and then go to work on the phone and internet. You end up receiving an email that describes what a big winner you are. Some of these organizations strictly work the phones and start off with a very friendly and enthusiastic call telling you how much in cash and prizes you have won. (Don’t laugh, you would be shocked to know how many people get victimized in this fashion). The first psychological trigger that goes off is the tiny thought that you might just have really won this money, you might have finally had a bit of luck. So they ask you for a small fee to take care of whatever they pitch as needed to confirm and transfer the funds to you. The early stage is probably a due diligence fee in order to validate your winnings. This early stage is $500-1000.

I have personally handled more then 6 victims of this scam in 2016. One of these victims was taken for more then $400K. its a fairly simple psychological dilemma. When you receive the call you are filled with hope and then the hope wanes a bit and you have a brief moment of clarity and logic, but the person on the other end of the line is very good at what they do and fully understand the psychological triggers involved and how to easily manipulate them. Before you can run away they get you back on the hook and then they pressure you into that first payment. In this type of scam you are unfortunately toast once you make the first payment. You now have “gold fever” and you will chase the money, its simple human nature. You have moved into the greed level, you don’t simply desire that money, you have taken ownership of it. You don’t want to think or believe you have made a mistake so you continue to chase the money and the scammers know you will.

Kindly remember that our minds work in fairly consistent manners and one of those is the gamblers basic problem. The gamblers problem is they always believe the next card, roll, spin or pull of the lever is their winning event. Many times winning isn’t enough because if it were the person would simply take their winnings and move on but only a very small minority of people ever do this. Most stay until they lose it all back plus more. Its the same vicious cycle in the lottery scam, the more money you provide in fees the closer you are to the delivery of your winnings and the double edge is that the more money you put into the scam the more you feel obligated to chase.

The solution? Only buy the eggs! Remember the golden goose from day 1? Well this is another version of the goose and eggs. The Jamaican lottery represents the goose, only in this case there is nothing whatsoever behind the goose, its a hollow goose. How can you win a lottery you never participated in? Its impossible, there are no random lotteries anywhere on the earth. Its doesn’t exist, its all a fairy tale. even if there were a random lottery and you were somehow pulled out of a hat why would there be any cost involved to receive the funds? Couldn’t any fees simply be withdrawn or withheld from the winnings? I realize this sounds silly and of course you believe you would never get caught in something like this, but I’m here to tell you I have worked with intelligent, savvy, sophisticated people who have lost huge sums to this very fraud. Of course they feel the shame and guilt that comes with learning they were victimized. It can happen to ANYBODY! And it does multiple times daily in every city, hamlet, county and small village in America.

Lastly, I need to close with sad story (unfortunately most end this way). I was recently asked to speak with an associates client who was obviously in the middle of one of these scams. The lady wouldn’t discuss the situation because she was adamant about being told she should discuss it with no one or she would risk losing her winnings. At that point she was receiving $15K or so from a transaction with my associate. I recommended he provide her with some very transparent information on how this scam works, what type of language is used, the types of spins used to overcome any objections and some additional key information such as the progressive fee structures involved in these common scams. Because she was getting ready to pay out at least $15K I could safely assume she was at the 3rd stage in the scam and probably already was out at least $5K. Sadly, she could not be swayed and will ultimately lose her total financial holdings.

As I write this, I received an email this morning that was clearly a fee based scam. It started out with the National Registry for fraud victim recovery. It spoke of how I was identified and there were funds available to me for my recent loss recovery. (Of course I have suffered no loss). The perpetrators of these email scams work on the law of large numbers. They benefit from the lack of awareness across the general public and sadly they also benefit from the gullibility of many very kind people who simply tend to believe in fairy tales. Of course you are now saying how that would never happen to you because who could be that gullible? Who could possibly believe they could receive a huge payout by simply providing some seemingly inconsequential information?

Here is the TRUTH. These email campaigns are run in two separate formats. First one is to gain information such as Name, Address, Phone number, email address confirmation, and then there is second level info which is far more personal and secured such as bank account info, social security number, job info etc..

The perpetrators ask for this info for 2 distinct purposes. All who answer level 1 questions are added to an accumulated “sucker list” which is then sold to other perpetrators who run Jamaican Lottery scams and other such fee based scams. Those who are unaware enough to answer second level questions (you would be surprised how many of these people there are) these people are then victimized through identity theft rings. Both levels of info are sold to other perpetrators for differing purposes, all of which end in financial victimization.

The second type of email is one that comes from those who are soliciting the lists they purchase and their intent is to run a direct upfront fee based scam. These can be about any number of credible topics and often times they are embedded in software that mirrors government websites such as FBI, IRS, Social Security, numerous main stream Banks such as Chase Manhattan, Citibank, Wells Fargo, Bank America, SunTrust, and many others. (often times email campaigns are sent to phish for your bank account by simply emailing you from any of the major banks, occasionally they hit on your actual bank randomly). These emails are always seeking either an upfront payment for some incredible good fortune or credible fortune such as old bank account funds, tax return monies awaiting you (could also be threats that you owe tax money and IRS will take everything you have or worse put you in jail unless you pay fees for services), job opportunity. There are simply too many types of scams to list them all in a black hat manner, so the easiest method is to simply expose the concepts behind the scams.

Your information and privacy is the foundational key to turning you into a financial victim. By fully inoculating your private information you have taken a foundational step in self preservation from all forms of financial victimization. This is the holy grail to protection. Simply guard you private information and never provide it via the telephone or internet without full due diligence vetting of the requesting person or organization. It would take too much work on your behalf, therefore a simple rule of thumb is GIVE NO ONE YOUR personal INFORMATION! On occasion there are real circumstances and situations which require your information, these are the ones that require full due diligence before remitting any personal information.

Here are some simple rules to follow:

Never divulge your personal information to strangers

Always check the details link in your emails to see the actual email address that sent you the email, this can easily identify mirrored links

Never hit on links inside emails unless you are positive about the sender and even then do virus check before any link connections

Be aware that the majority of banks, financial institutions, government agencies and many others will never contact you via email or telephone seeking personal information, this includes your passwords for any websites you register with from these agencies.

Always be willing to take an additional 10 minutes to read closely and then complete some limited due diligence to eliminate the source and offer.

Our members receive all this protection and more, but the key to protecting yourself against financial victimization is protecting your personal information and being aware of the types of scams and fraud that are passing through the market place at any specific time.

As promised I want to provide you with 12 days of Advocacy. There is no better time of year to provide a random act of kindness. This holiday season provides a double edged sword. First edge works to provide magically grace and mercy which many, many, many people share with one another. This gratitude makes people feel an emotional connection which unfortunately brings us to the second edge of the sword. It is during this time of the year that scams, fraud and predatory sales manipulations become very common. The very behaviors and sense of commonality that lights up the season as a great time of camaraderie also makes people very susceptible to financial victimization.

With that in mind I am going to share some members only information, insider material that is usually only available to members. This is a gift for the holidays and it also extends our commitment to stopping all forms of financial victimization.

The first day’s gift is a goose that lays golden eggs. The goose represents the financial offering that is commonly the hook for all types of financial victimization. Have you ever been offered the goose? Think long and hard on this. The goose is the intellectual property that often is a special money maker. An example of a goose is a trading program with a special algorithm. Imagine you can get this program and turn a couple of $100 per day into a couple of thousand. You have received this offer many times either in a direct sale TV offer, and email, website with click in or direct mail. And it always has the same magnetic impact on your senses. The thought of easily money or get rich quick is a tremendous hook. It is also one of the most common approaches used by scammers, fraudsters and sales manipulators. This type of scam is totally legal, the only type of illegal activity can come in false advertising or over zealous promotions. The real danger though is a very simple concept and can easily be overcome 100% of the time.

The goose that lays the eggs is PRICELESS, after all without the goose there are no eggs. But we can easily miss this very common reality. We get caught up in the attraction to immediate gain without any deeper thought about true value. When you stop to consider the real value you immediate realize the goose is priceless (in this case the trading algorithm if real would be priceless, why would you sell an algorithm that could make so much money for you each day? You would simply keep the algorithm, invest your own dollars and make a mint!) Once you stop and consider this you realize that buying the goose would be a financial victimization.

So the simple rule for your own personal protection is whenever you are approached with a financial offer look for the goose and then if you are being attracted to/with/by the goose you are being scammed:

The value of membership needs to constantly be communicated as the world of membership subscriptions is a foggy and unreliable world. Many very poor operations have been launched giving those in this sector a very poor reputation. Our entire premise was founded on the protection from financial victimization so in essence our membership subscription was uniquely separated from the white noise of the sector. Of course there are numerous membership subscription organizations providing an exponential number of services. As previously stated many of these have been massive failures due to poor value propositions or worse yet poor execution of excellent value proposition. At the Advocacy Network we studied the so called lay of the land in membership subscription offerings and determined that in order to offer and execute superior value proposition we needed to have distinct pieces that differentiated us at all points of contact.

One of the most efficient and positive pieces was the Financial Concierge relationship. Our goal was to maintain a client (subscriber) centric value execution in all our specific service offerings. Financial victimization constitutes a tremendously broad topic and has many layered points of recognition. Its not a simple topic and thus cannot be limited to a core specific discussion with a few topical points. Its a vast and broadly consuming topic that has many mazes within the communication levels. Thus we needed not only an educational platform but we needed a core specific one to one relationship in which members could seek out and discuss any decisions about their money. This was the very essence of the introduction of the Financial Concierge.

The Financial Concierge is not simply a sales person, they are an effective advocate for the members they serve. Our mission is to provide the most efficient and effective counseling, education and information available for members. This requires ongoing updates, constant research and full transparency of the market place and the risks involved for our membership base. Thus the relationship with a Financial Concierge is much like a coaching relationship. The Financial Concierge is responsible for the provision of information, education and direct counseling that ensures members make smart decisions about money. You can imagine how difficult this is. In theory it is very simple, yet in practice it requires patience, knowledge and teaching ability. It is truly a relationship and as such it makes the Financial Concierge responsible and accountable to the members they serve. “YOUR Best Interest Is OUR Only Concern” is far from a simple motto, its a way of life and a professional promise. This is one of the major glue factors in our ability to provide not only value but to inherently protect our members from all forms of financial victimization. It is validated in that to date we have saved our members in excess of $6.4M and counting each and every day. As we grow our effectiveness and our direct responsibility grows as well. Our ability to provide and execute the protection we pride ourselves on is greatly due to the Financial Concierge relationship.

if you have ever felt the pain, anger, shame and guilt of being financially victimized you are well aware of the misery that follows the victimization. You are also well familiar with the psychological damage that precedes the chasing the money effect. The worst part of financial victimization is hardly the losses, it is the never ending cycle of pursuing the losses. we help heal that misery. Not only will we proactively protect you and ensure you never become victimized we will provide all the information, education and relationship tools needed to heal from past victimization. Sadly the cycle of financial victimization appears to be never ending once a person has become a victim. It lingers and it makes the victim a prime candidate for re-victimization. This can and will be stopped through a simple process of being a member of the Advocacy Network. There are many, many reasons to become a member and yet there is no good reason to ignore it and refuse membership. Its affordable, its effective, its reliable and most importantly it works!

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The Advocacy Network is a platform which blends education, information and premium services that prevent investors, consumers and businesses from becoming victims to scams, fraud and predatory sales tactics.